[ExI] Avon's latest

Amon Zero amon at doctrinezero.com
Wed Oct 12 07:51:40 UTC 2011


On 11 October 2011 22:01, Tom Nowell <nebathenemi at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Avon, that well-known cosmetics company, has called their new line "Avon
> Anew Genics"....clearly no-one thought carefully about calling their product
> an...eugenics.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVpT3-AIoR4&feature=share
>
> I'm impressed by the pseudoscience on display, if a "youth gene" in skin
> cells had been discovered and a method of undoing ageing in skin cells was
> safe and effective, it would be a Nobel prize-worthy discovery.



Yes, I had the same thoughts when I saw the advert last night. I couldn't
decide whether it was more likely that the product name was an accident
(being a conjunction between specific product and line names) or if they'd
decided that it pressed helpful associative buttons. The latter conclusion
seems more surprising in some ways of course (and here we were, worried
about being called neo-eugenicists!), but to my mind it would be even more
surprising if Avon rolled out a product with such fanfare without properly
thinking about the connotations.

I'll wager that they tested the name on focus groups, and the focus groups
either didn't know or care about any association with eugenics, or what
eugenics is.

- A
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